Tag Archives: Persona 4

Welcome to Gateway Games. This is a series where I talk about games that either got me into a series or an entire genre. For a series, I had to have played a later game in the series lifespan. For Genre, any game of said genre would do (except if they were the genre starters).

Like many of us on both The Wired Fish and beyond, most of the gaming populace spent most of their gaming lives knowing next to nothing about Shin Megami Tensei (MegaTen or SMT for short). Sure we’ve played Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Phantasy Star, but nothing on the then Japan-Only SMT. The series had some of its entries make it over here, like Persona,Last Bible (under the name The Demon Slayer), Jack Bros., and DemiKids, but they were part of different sub-series of SMT, and all of them except DemiKids didn’t have the Shin Megami Tensei name in it. The first mainline game to make it over was Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, followed by the sub-seires Digital Devil Saga, and the series’ big break in the West, Persona 3. This is where we begin this first entry of Gateway Games.

And so the plot thickens. Previously on the p-ch.jp website, the site barely told us anything, and only alluded to it being Persona related when checking the html sheet under page source. With 5 days left to go before the date shown, the site has been updated with Persona 4′s beary own Teddie (I had to do it). Clicking on the boxes each reveals a different facial expression of Teddie. It you get each box to show the same expression, each box will shake and randomly show a different expression. Before this update, these boxes showed nothing and only vibrated.

What about the cities at the bottom? Well nothing’s changed down there, and they all still vibrate. but Teddie’s addition to the site brings this even closer to definitely being Persona related, specifically Persona 4. But is this truly about just Persona 4? This is Atlus we’re talking about, and they like to fake people out sometimes.

Last week, a new light was shined upon within the videogame community, followed by many faces of bewilderment, amazement, and side-splittting laughter. Coming from African game distributor Syrian Games, the games presented had boxart that can only be described as a drug-filled surrealist trip. Heads of characters photoshopped on the bodies of other characters, overly simple title fonts, and the overabundance of greenery and rainbows for relatively dark games. I mean, I’ve seen bootleg boxart before (namely from fake Famicom games), this but this a whole ‘nother level of zany. There were over 700 games in the PS2 section, and I sifted through all of them. Yes, I’m that serious. As I clicked page after page, I thought that it’d stopped be funny eventually. But it never did, and this is just the PS2 section. Rest assured, I wanted to show many of these and was initially raring to only show 20. But screw that, we’re going for 60!

So after the break, the The Top 60 Most Wacky Bootleg Boxarts: PS2 Edition.

“Live In Your World. Play In Ours.” That was the slogan for much of the PS2’s lifecycle. While the PS2’s time was long over, that thought was only subjective as games were still being made for it well after its time supposedly passed. Games like Persona 4 and Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier were showed that the PS2 still had a beating heart, but it was obvious that it’s days were numbers (or were in fact up). Finally, Sony stepped in to confirm that manufacturing of all PS2 systems had ceased in all territories earlier this year, marking an end to an era. Not since the Japanese Famicom have we seen a console stay in production this long, even after support for the game dropped to near zero. And thus we look back on the era that kicked off the new millennium, the Playstation 2.

The students from Inaba are back, and this time looking shinier than ever with Persona 4 Golden on the Playstation Vita. This updated port comes with updated graphics, new locations, a new character, and a few tweaks as well.

Prota: There’s not much for me to say here because what you see is what you get. If Persona 4 on the go is what you’re after then look no further. The graphics still look sharp on the smaller Vita screen and everything felt smooth as silk. As mentioned above, there are some new additions to the port and one of my favorites has to be the fact that you can now choose your spoils after battle. Instead of the “shuffle time” from the original version, the player can look at all the cards drawn and choose from them. This makes finding the Persona you need, teaching them new skills, and raising their stats a lot easier. Whether you’re playing Persona 4 for the first time or a veteran wanting to experience all the new additions, I believe Persona 4 Golden will deliver. The original was a fantastic game, and I think this port is only going to make it that much better.

Man, look at MC’s dance moves! Straight swag all over the place. I will admit, this opening is very weird, especially when you compare it to the opening of the original Persona 4 and Persona 3 Portable. But man that song is so damn awesome! Carefree and smooth. Love hearing a song like this in a game. I gotta admit everyone looks like they went to the suburban school of dance. Regardless, I really like the kaleidoscope theme these guys were going for. Bravo to Atlus for another awesome opening.

Persona 4: The Golden is expected to release this October in the U.S. for the Playstation Vita.

Atlus has just confirmed that Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena will be released in the U.S. for Xbox 360 and PS3 this summer. With this release comes a new, shorter name for those that thought it was a mouthful (or just felt uncomfortable using the P4U abbreviation). It’ll be known as Persona 4: Arena in the U.S. No word yet if the English voice cast will come back reprise their rolls, or what that one card is hiding on the Japanese website’s character screen. Pre-orders are currently being taken though Gamestop, Amazon, and VGP. The U.S. site is up, but so far there’s only the pre-order information shown.

I don’t care how many times I do these articles, I’m not calling P4: The Ultimate “P4U.” It just sounds dirty. Anyway, here we have footage of a location testing (or “Loketest”) of Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena. Here we have a fight between Kanji and my homegirl Mitsuru. Things are still as fast as ever. One interesting thing that one of the youtube comments pointed out was that the blue bars under the life gauge have been changed to look like the backs of the Arcana cards from Persona 3&4. Pretty interesting. What other changes have you noticed? Point them out in the comments below.

Atlus you cheeky bastards, leading us to assume that Aigis was the only P3 representative in that fighting game you’re making with ArcSys. Shame on you! But I digress, Atlus has revealed recently that Mitsuru Kirijo and Akihiko Sanada from Persona 3 will be playable characters in Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena. Since this takes place some time after Persona 4, you already know these two aged when you consider when P3 took place. Akihiko has now lost his shirt and is sporting a huge scar across his chest (that looks like it came from a bear). Mitsuru now looks like a spy for the KGB and is now wearing a fur coat, and hot damn am I okay with that! They’ll be sporting their ultimate Personas, Ceasar and Artemesia respectively. The official website has been updated to show these characters. Screens after the break. Now if you excuse me…Continue reading →

Big blogs, I am disappoint. How could you talk about Modern Warfare 3 and Skyrim and not talk about this!? This is big news here! Naoto and Teddy have been revealed as playable characters in Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena, a fighting game being done by Atlus and Arc System Works (of BlazBlue and Guilty Gear fame). They’ve actually been revealed for some weeks already, but not a lot of blogs seem to be mentioning it. I guess it’s somewhat of a forgone conclusion that the P4 crew would be playable, but it doesn’t hurt to let the public know anyway. You can check the official website to see Naoto and Teddy (though the info is in Japanese). They’ve also added Twitter icons for any Twitters users out there to use. And for you wallpaper fanatics, they’ve got a wallpaper available a well. You can find those in the Special menu in the bottom. Teddy after the jump.

There was probably a good chunk of the audience that thought that Persona 4: The Animation was not going to cross the Pacific and land on our shores. I mean, a good chunk of Japanese made stuff, be it anime, games, and shows, never get released here (officially anyway). But, as the headline suggest, Sentai Filmworks (one of the successors to ADV Films), has licensed P4A for US release. So far there’s no word on whether they’ll be bringing in the P4 voice actors to reprise their roles, get some news guys in, or forgo dubbing altogether. But this is still good news for those that want to officially see the anime of P4 and not depend of shoddy work of some hack fandub group.

Spotted at NicoNico Douga, we now have the first real gameplay footage of the new Persona 4 fighting game. As expected, the action is fast paced, and somewhat BlazBlue like (given this is being made by Arc System Works). And to answer fears of gamers thinking all the characters play like Carl Clover in BlazBlue: No, they do not play like him. Instead they simply come out to perform special attacks and super attacks. For those wondering how the button layout and configuration will be for this fighting game, it’s hard to tell. But from the little bit we can see on the lable below the screen, it seems to use a 4-button layout. The super meter seems split into three parts and counts from 0 to 200, so maybe some supers probably consume different amounts of bar.

And just when I thought Atlus and Arc System Works would remain hush for a while after revealingPersona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena, here they come with more screens. From the looks of it, this game is going have more flash than MvC3 on acid. One thing I never noticed was Rise next to the portraits of the fighters cheering you on. Though, given the context that she’s friends with everyone revealed so far (except for Aigis), she might serve more of a purpose than being a cheerleader. Also, the debate over the P4 antagonist’s name has been settled, as he’ll go by his anime name, Yu Narukami (as o opposed to the fan favorite manga name, Souji Seta). We also see more of the characters’ Personas dishing out some attacks. My assumption is that either you have to build up that super meter at the bottom to call them out for a super, or they’ll just come out for a quick moment for special attacks. We’ll know more as time goes. In the mean time, hit the jump to see some screens [UPDATE] and the trailer!

Ahem… I will hold back my inner fanboy squee in an effort to deliver quality journalistic coverage of Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena. If you didn’t see the news yesterday, Atlus announced that Persona was getting a fighting game. Today, they delivered some screenshots through Famitsu. We can see Arc System Works’ style shine through with crazy-flashy moves and colors. The visual elements of P3 and P4 lend themselves well in the transition from RPG to fighting game. So far, confirmed characters are Yu Narukami (or Hero on the Famitsu page), Chie Satonaka, and Yosuke Hanamura representing Persona 4, and Aigis representing Persona 3. In the screenshot above, we can also see that the protagonist from Persona 3 is in as well (it says Fool under his name), and Kanji is in as well (next to Chie). Still no word on characters from Persona and Persona 2 joining the fray. The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena is expected to be released on arcades on Spring 2012, with PS3 and 360 versions arriving that Summer. Screenshots after the break.

First, the smaller news. Atlus has announced that Persona 4 will be ported over to the Playstation Vita, following in its predecessor’s, footsteps (it being Persona 3 Portable). Under the name Persona 4: The Golden, it looks like it’ll retain everything the original PS2 version had (and not losing things like P3P). It will be gaining new features, including new animations, new opening, more voices, and a new character.

Now about that fighting game. Called Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena, the game takes place two years after the events of Persona 4. It will have characters from Persona 3 and 4 (no word on 1 and 2). So far we’re not sure if it’s canon or not, but this sounds awesome. Even better is that Arc System Works (the makers of BlazBlue) will be making the game. Now P3‘s MC can finally kick Mituru’s ass for gravely undermining her healing duties. It’s slated for release in arcades, then 360 and PS3 in 2012.

Finally, the staff has been assembled for Persona 5 and are ready to go.